Once we finished our diving and snorkeling at Sibuan, we headed back to Semporna and bought tickets for the overnight bus to Kota Kinabalu. Completing three dives that same day left me exhausted and I was certain that I would sleep like a baby regardless of the conditions on the overnight bus ride. Naturally, I was proven wrong.

Yay, we get to travel in First Class tonight!

The bus left at around 7:30PM and by 9PM the air conditioning had stopped functioning. Air con buses are great but air con buses with a broken AC unit are ten times worse than a bus without AC because the windows can’t be opened! We spent the next few hours tossing and turning along with the other 47 people on the bus. Around midnight we came screeching to a halt at some nondescript roadside eatery out in the middle of Sabah’s palm plantations. Half the passengers and the drivers jumped out to take a break. Since neither of us was managing any sleep in the sauna-on-wheels, we stretched our legs. What happened next was quite unexpected.

Just as we were about to leave, the ticket guy from our bus came over and said we should move to the other bus. Nobody else was moving but he said we could go “same seats, same seats” he proclaimed. I double, no, triple-checked to make sure the bus was also headed to KK. Indeed it was and he was just moving us because there happened to be open seats on their other bus (from Lahad Datu, another east coast city, I presume) and the AC was working. I was mighty impressed by this gesture!

We arrived in KK at some horrid hour…3:30AM or thereabouts. The second bus was much more comfortable from a temperature standpoint but the legroom was painfully minimal. Making matters worse was the fact that they guy behind me wouldn’t let me recline my seat at all. No sleep for me that night but at least we were out of Semporna! Our hotel in KK was completely locked down so we had our choice between a 24-hour KFC and a 24-hour McDonalds. We mooched McD’s wifi and enjoyed a couple of beverages for the next three hours.

Ferry boat for Kota Kinabalu to Pulau Labuan

Brunei, one of SE Asia’s more obscure countries, was our next destination on the trip. Brunei has two small slivers of land on the north coast of Borneo and is home to about 400,000 people. Huge amounts of oil have been discovered in Brunei and this has developed the country and made it one of the richest in the region. Apparently, it is possible to get to Brunei overland from Sabah but it is a huge pain. The easier route, and the one we selected, was to take a boat from KK to Pulau Labuan and then switch to a second boat bound for Brunei. We left KK a little late in the day which unfortunately forced us to overnight in Labuan. We found some decent Indian food there but there was little else of note.

The next day we made the quick one-hour crossing to Brunei’s port of Muara and caught a bus from there to the country’s capital – Bandar Seri Begawan. Our immediate impression of Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB, for short) was that it is strikingly similar to Singapore. Not in the sense of there being huge glamorous high-rises and crazy shopping malls – there isn’t anything of the sort, but rather, in the sense that the place was impeccably clean and well organized. We just barely beat a tropical rainstorm to the hotel.

Downpour on arrival in BSB

After settling into our room we walked to the city center and hired a boatman for a quick spin through Kampong Ayer, the nearby stilt village which many call the “Venice of the East.” Apparently, Kampong Ayer is one of the largest stilt villages in the world and the nickname makes sense to me. It is a bewildering labyrinth of canals and wooden houses and shops all strung together by wooden walkways. What makes it particularly interesting is how the government has officially embraced its existence. Our boatman kept pointing out schools, police stations, and even fire departments that were built into the village. Additionally, many of the houses have drinking water and city sewage service. Very cool!

From the boat, we also got a brief glimpse of the Sultan’s enormous palace which has 1,788 rooms! It’s too bad we weren’t visiting Brunei a little later in the month because at the end of Ramadan, the palace opens for everyone to visit and feast. One of the locals we met later in our stay told us that he goes with his family each and every year and that it is a party not to be forgotten. If you are on Borneo for Ramadan, make it a point to be there – that was the message.

The Sultan’s palace

The main attractions in BSB include the strikingly beautiful Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque and the Royal Regalia Museum. The pictures of the mosque speak for themselves, it is an incredible structure and it is unfortunate that we weren’t able to visit the interior (closed to visitors during Ramadan). The Royal Regalia museum was also quite interesting. Photos weren’t allowed inside but you can imagine what is inside: all sorts of fancy royal clothing, huge parade chariots pulled by a 30 men, and of course the many gifts the Sultan has received from other governments.

On our second day in BSB we rode on a speedboat to Brunei’s Temburong district which is isolated from the rest of the country by a small piece of Malaysia (Sarawak). The Lonely Planet highly recommended the ride even if we didn’t have a specific reason to go to Temburong and they were right. The boat held about 20 people but had two 150-hp outboards strapped to the back. Jetting through the narrow channels through the mangroves was lots of fun! Once in Temburong we wandered a bit and then grabbed some cold drinks at a restaurant before heading back to BSB.

On the ride back, and I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough to get a photo, we saw a huge crocodile sunbathing along the bank. Now as a Floridian I feel that I am relatively well-qualified to make statements about the size of water-borne reptiles. When I say huge, I mean HUGE. This thing was far larger than the largest American alligators that I’ve seen back home. The Wikipedia article on the matter informs me that water crocs can reach 20ft in length and top the scales at 2,000lbs – it also provides some scary narrative about their feeding behavior. I believe every bit of it and I am sure glad that we weren’t kayaking the mangroves!

Seafood noodles

We found some delicious food in Brunei. Much like Singapore, the local cuisine is a mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian foods. As we often do in our travels, we quickly found a convenient and favorite place to eat and we returned for a number of meals over the course of our three day visit. The roti canai cooked up at this place for breakfast was mighty tasty and we also had some excellent noodle dishes for dinner.

Only in Brunei can one find a control tower with gold all over it!

BSB’s airport is one of only two on Borneo that is served by Star Alliance airline (on their own metal, at least) and available for award redemption. Since flying out of Kota Kinabalu would have involved backtracking to Seoul, we booked two business class seats on Singapore Airline’s twice-weekly widebody service from Brunei.

Massage chairs at Royal Brunei’s Sky Lounge

Brunei’s international airports departure lounge has vaulted ceilings and some small koi ponds scattered about that gave it a slightly Changi Airport (SIN) feel. After thoroughly exploring the curbside section of the airport, including the very nice rooftop “waving gallery” that has tarmac views, we headed through passport control to get showers in Royal Brunei’s Sky Lounge and have a few snacks. The flight to Singapore was a short 2-hour hop and we had a good view of the Sultan’s palace shortly after takeoff.

Brunei

Yay, we get to travel in First Class tonight!

Ferry boat for Kota Kinabalu to Pulau Labuan

Downpour on arrival in BSB

Fancy hotel room in Brunei

The direction to Mecca.

This is what happens when you go from an aircon building into the humid outdoors in BSB.

At the far eastern end of Sabah lies the town of Semporna, the gateway to Tun Sakaran Marine Park. The park, which includes Sipadan Island, is widely regarded as one of the world’s best dive sites. We arrived in Semporna on a hot and humid afternoon and without any specific plans as to how to visit the park or where to stay. Finding some accommodations was pretty easy even through the tourist season is in full swing. After some food, we dropped off our laundry at the laundromat and went shopping for a dive operator.

Singamata Reef Resort

Most of the dive outfits have accommodations on islands in the park that you are allowed to use if you book dives and/or courses. Mabul Island is the most popular and the most highly recommended places to stay (at least in the budget category) were booked up. We came across a place called Singamata Reef Resort that seemed to be a nice alternative. Instead of being on one of the islands in the park, it is located on a reef a few miles offshore from Semporna. Their prices were reasonable (US$33 per person per night, full-board provided) and they still operated dive trips to the park.

We wanted to escape Semporna the very next day but our laundry wasn’t ready yet so we were forced to stay another night. Laundry places in Malaysia are full service – you can’t wash your clothes yourself even if you want to! Semporna isn’t exactly the nicest of Malaysian towns so we mostly hid out in our hotel room (with AC!). The main activity for that day was a lunchtime visit to the open-air food market. Semporna itself didn’t seem to have all that many restaurant options. Maybe that was because it was Ramadan, or maybe that is because we didn’t know where to look.

Murtabak vendors

The food-market had quite a bit to offer. There were numerous drink vendors whose beverage selection covered every color of the rainbow. There were also quite a few vendors with grills covered in fish and chicken. Personally, I ended up grabbing a vegetable murtabak which is a stuffed roti served with curry. Roti is a flakey flatbread made of flour and ghee that is cooked on a grill. I also noticed that quite a few stalls were cooking up large pancake-looking things that were filled with peanuts. To drink, I got a plastic bag of super sweet orange juice. The problem with the market was that there was no place to sit and enjoy your food – it was purely a takeaway operation so we headed back to the hotel room and I very carefully tried to eat my murtabak and curry without spilling it all over the place. A tasty lunch for about a buck.

Vegetable murtabak with curry

The next morning we reported in at the Singamata office at 8am for the morning boat departure. The ride out to the resort was less than 10 minutes and they quickly showed us to our room in one of the stilt-houses. Amy and I chatted with a Swiss couple who were staying a few doors down and we learned that they were both dive masters staying at the resort. For those unfamiliar, the basic setup for dive masters is they get free housing in exchange for leading dive trips. It’s a good way to do lots of diving on the cheap but of course you have to pay for all those certifications first!

The view out our room’s door. Qualifies as waterfront I would say!

At Singamata there are a couple of options for diving. First you can just go diving at the “house reef” which is literally just below the resort. These dives cost RM80 (US$27) and can be made more or less spontaneously, subject to dive master availability. The second option is one of the full-day island trips where you get three dives, lunch, and boat transfer for RM300 (US$100).

Nudi branch

Since it had been many years since my last dive, the dive masters recommended a check-out dive for the house reef that afternoon. Four of us went that day, two dive masters (Eric and Nat from Switzerland) and another diver (also Swiss, I think). We dove to about 12m and had a poke around for 41 minutes. The coral in that area isn’t all that spectacular but as a “muck diving” site there was lots to see – mainly small creatures like shrimp and colorful nudibranch. One of the dive masters has an underwater camera so I am happy to be able to share some photos from the dive. Given our proximity to the town, visibility was quite good – around 10m.

On the second day we had hoped to do a three-dive day trip. The weather overnight was absolutely miserable. Violent thunderstorms, strong winds and plenty of rain. When we rose it was still drizzling and windy and I didn’t feel comfortable going out to one of the islands, particular if lightning was a possibility. We stayed behind and I completed another house dive late in the afternoon.

Pulau Sibuan

On day 3 the weather improved and we took the full-day trip to Sibuan Island. The boat ride out was about 40 minutes and we completed two of the dives before the lunch break. Amy split her time between snorkeling off the beach of the island and snorkeling from the boat when it took us to dive sights. For me, the best experience of the day was getting to swim alongside of a huge green sea turtle (3-4 feet across the shell) while he/she grazed on the bottom. Amy also managed to spot a sea turtle while snorkeling. Other highlights of that day included a black frog fish which I never would have spotted had it not been for my able dive master. Unfortunately the dive master didn’t bring the camera along on the day trip so I don’t have pictures of my turtle encounter. Visibility for all three of the dives that day was quite good, at least 15m!

In the end we were very happy with the Singamata Reef Resort. The food was nice, the rooms were clean and the location was a welcome change from the stifling heat in Semporna. It’s too bad about the weather on day 2 as I gladly would have done another full-day dive trip. but we had to move on. I am glad to get back to the diving hobby and hopefully this trip will carry us through other good diving locations in the coming months.

SCUBA at Sibuan Island

Semporna’s food market

I was intrigued by these peanut pancake things so I bought one.

Some sort of sweet pancake with peanut filling

Murtabak vendors

Vegetable murtabak with curry

One of the common shower annoyances: a broken showerhead holder. This one I fixedw ith bungee cords.

Kinabantangan. That’s a mouthful but it rolls off the tounge once you get used to it. It’s the name of a river in northern Sabah that has recently been protected as a wildlife refuge. It is indeed chock full of animals but the underlying reason is a bit sad.

Soon after we left the highlands around Kinabalu the land flattened out and we rode through endless fields of palm trees. Malaysia is the world’s largest exporter of palm oil and much of it comes from Sabah. As the demand for palm oil rose over the last century the rainforests of Sabah were cleared to make room for massive palm oil plantations. One of the few areas untouched by this development was the sliver of land carved out by the Kinabatangan River.

We arranged a three-day, two-night trip with the Greenview B&B in Sukau, a little village along the river. The tour included all meals, transport from Sandakan, accommodation and a smattering of boat tours and hikes.

Day 1 of the trip included a boat cruise in the late afternoon. We motored along the river for a while and spotted a few hornbills flying about. Eventually we turned down a narrow canal that emptied into the river. It wasn’t long before we started to see monkeys – lots of monkeys. The most common were macaques (both the long-tail and pig-tail variety) but the most popular among us tourists were the proboscis monkeys. Proboscis monkeys, specifically the dominant males, have a nose of cartoon proportions that photographs well.

A male proboscis monkey. The most famous nose in Borneo.

After a long while staring at the monkeys, our boat driver received a call on his cell phone. Yeah, we weren’t exactly way out in the wilderness. Regardless, the phone call was to inform him that some of the area’s pygmy elephants had been spotted nearby. I can’t say that I have received a phone call about elephants but it seemed like an everyday thing for the guides. We sped off down the canal at a rate which made me feel sorry for the other tourists who were just arriving.

A family of proboscis monkeys

Closer to the village we pulled up along the bank and saw some of the trees and bushes moving around. Inside the guide promised were “some” elephants. A short while later we heard the distinctive trumpeting of an elephant. There was a rather large group of them in the forest but we could only see a few that were nearest the river bank. Apparently, we were lucky to see them at all and they are definitely one of the rarest mammals we’ve seen in the wild – only a few thousand individuals are estimated to remain. As adults they only stand about 2 meters tall, much smaller than normal elephants.

Borneo pygmy elephants

After a buffet dinner back at the B&B we went on a night boat ride. We spotted quite a few owls, a reticulated python and a few kingfishers. Photography was pretty tough but the guide’s spotlight helped us get a few good shots.

Reticulated python

The next morning we rose early and took another boat ride. Some eagles were out fishing in the river and we passed a “school boat” filled with kids on their way to school. A short while later we got another glimpse of the pygmy elephants, this time it was an immature female.

Pygmy elephant, an immature female

Rollie-pollie bug…the size of a ping pong ball!

We stopped at one point and went on a short hike through the jungle and found a number of huge insects. When I think of a rollie-pollie I think of a small insect the size of a pencil eraser. In Borneo, their rollie-pollies are the size of ping pong balls! We also spotted some nicely camouflaged insects like this leaf bug.

A leaf bug

All of the tourist material about the Borneo jungle gives some information about the leeches. Fortunately for us, our visit was well-timed during the dry season and they are much less active. We only saw one during our stay and it was happily attached to the back of one of the other tourists staying at our B&B. Despite their vile reputation, apparently the leeches in this area really aren’t all that dangerous as they don’t host diseases like mosquitoes. Nevertheless, I was happy not to have been bitten!

Night walk through the jungle

On our second night of the tour we completed a nighttime hike through the jungle behind the B&B. We wore waterproof boots to deal with the muck and very slowly made our way through the jungle. Thorny vines were the main bother and the mosquitoes really weren’t all that bad.

We saw some really crazy looking bugs during the night walk

Overall we were only moderately impressed with the tour. Then again, we have both been on some really good boat tours on this trip so the competition is a bit steep. Being able to see the pygmy elephants in the wild was certainly the highlight for both of us. Both the guidebooks and the local tourist literature flaunt the Kinabatangan as a haven for bird spotting but our tour, and I suspect many of the competing outfits, are just not setup for this kind of tourism. There are simply too many people visiting a very small area of land. This aspect of the tour left me disappointed.

Lots and lots of tourists visit the Kinabatangan

The biggest take-away for me from these three days was the environmental impact of the palm oil industry. What this industry has done to the landscape of Borneo is very sad and I will certainly be more conscious in the future when I see products at the store containing palm oil.

Kinabatangan River

Our mode of transport for the three days of the excursion

After about an hour I concluded that this lifevest was far more valuable as a cushion than as a floatation device.

Hornbills

A male proboscis monkey. The most famous nose in Borneo.

Oriental Darter

A family of proboscis monkeys

A female proboscis and her child

Bornean pygmy elephants

Borneo pygmy elephants

“The Lion King Photo” according to a Dutch guy on our tour.

Plenty of geckos around our guest house

Reticulated python

Kingfisher, the smallest species in Borneo I was told.

Early morning sighting of a red-haired monkey

Boat cruise at dawn

It’s the school boat!

Pygmy elephants again, this is an immature female.

Pygmy elephant, an immature female

Oriental darters

Water monitor lizard – about 5ft long

Rollie-pollie bug…the size of a ping pong ball!

A large hive of bees

A leaf bug

It looks like smoke but it is actually fungi spores coming out of a log.

Elephant ear – a type of fungus. Literally the size of an elephant’s ear.

Making our way from Kinabalu National Park over to Sandakan on Sabah’s northern coast was pretty easy. We rose early and took a taxi from the lodge down to the highway and then waited for one of the KK-to-Sandakan buses to come down the highway. The 4-hour ride came to 40 ringgit (about US$14) for a nice air-con bus with horrible movies blaring away. Just as we were approaching Sandakan I caught sight of another fine example of Malaysia traffic circle ornamentation. Behold:

Another fine example of Malaysian traffic circle decor.

The May Fair Inn in Sandakan was recommended by the Lonely Planet and we soon found out why. It was located smack bang in the center of town and for RM50 (about US$17) we got a nice room complete with private bath, a very capable air con unit, a flat-screen TV, a DVD player as well as free reign over the proprietor’s absolutely massive collection of DVDs. The owner even had the DVDs sorted into enticing categories such as “Stallone Movies”, “Van Damme Movies”, and “Giant Animals.” We didn’t end up watching any while we were there but the room was spotless and had good lighting, loads of power outlets and a nice clothesline pre-strung in the bathroom for our laundry.

One of our best-value rooms to date. May Fair Inn, Sandakan

Sandakan is a nice enough town but most people stay there in order to visit the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre which is a dozen or so kilometers outside of town. After a hearty breakfast at a vegetarian Chinese place in the center we hopped on one of the local buses bound for Sepilok in order to make the morning feeding.

The center takes in orangutans and trains them so that they can survive in the wild. The incoming apes are a mix of ones that were being kept illegally as pets and of ones that were orphaned. We learned that on average it takes the center about 10 years to rehabilitate one of the apes. A very expensive endeavor!

When a new orangutan arrives at the center, the staff performs rigorous medical checks and nurses the animal back to health. Many of the animals that have been in captivity since they were very young lack even the most basic skills needed to survive in the wild – being able to climb, for example. Over time, they slowly learn these skills from other apes at the center and from the human trainers.

Eventually, the orangutans are allowed to explore the nearby jungle, however, their dependency on humans tends to keep them nearby. The center has set up a number of feeding platforms that reach further and further into the jungle and they use these to draw the apes into the wilderness. Many of the individuals go completely wild and others remain semi-dependent for the rest of their lives.

Long beans, sweet potatos and, most expectedly, bananas were on the menu.

It was ridiculously hot when we went out for the morning feeding. High temperatures, high humidity, still air and direct sunlight made it a rather sweaty experience but we got to see some giant apes! Aside from their striking human similarities, I really enjoyed watching them multi-task. Eating, carrying two handfuls (or is that footfuls?) of extra food all while hanging from a rope? No problem if you are an orangutan!

Another highlight was that one of the apes showed up with its baby. Apparently it is common for rehabilitated apes to return to the center for food once they have reared a child.

Items of note: bananas in left hand, sweet potato in mouth and right foot, more bananas in left foot, baby attached at waist.

Orangutans aren’t the only primates that you get to see at the center. During the feeding some of the local macaques like to come in and steal some food for themselves. Surprisingly the orangutans don’t seem to care all that much. I saw one of the younger males take a swat at a macaque but other than that they seemed to coexist. The macaques certainly know to keep their distance though!

The bandits (macaques) raiding the food.

After the feeding we walked over to the Rainforest Discovery Center which is an independently run park. I thought it would be a bit swamped with people who were waiting for the afternoon orangutan feeding but it was surprisingly quiet. After a stroll through the botanical garden we headed out on one of the many trails that lead off into the preserve.

The highlight of the park are the observation towers that you can climb to get a better look at the forest canopy. They also have a number of canopy walkways strung up between the trees to get from tower to tower. We saw a few birds there, including our first hornbill, but midday really isn’t the best of times for bird watching so the pickings were a little slim. Overall, I really enjoyed the Rainforest Discovery Center and I would like to go back sometime either early or late in the day to better enjoy the trails and bird life. As always, there are plenty more pictures in the thumbnails below.

Orangutans

Another fine example of Malaysian traffic circle decor.

Central Sandakan’s weekly market

One of our best-value rooms to date. May Fair Inn, Sandakan

Enjoying the views over Sandakan

Starting the day with noodles and satay.

A pig-tailed macaque coming in to steal some food.

Long beans, sweet potatos and, most expectedly, bananas were on the menu.

Items of note: bananas in left hand, sweet potato in mouth and right foot, more bananas in left foot, baby attached at waist.

The bandits (macaques) raiding the food.

Eating on the run

An adult male

Pitcher plants

Hornbill, very far away

A well-camoflauged lizard

The view from one of the observation towers

This is the girly drink I ended up with that evening. Tasted like bubblegum with a bit of milk and tapioca pearls at the bottom.

After a couple of well-spent days in Kota Kinabalu we pushed west to the biggest attraction on Borneo: Mount Kinabalu. The mountain, one of SE Asia’s highest, tops out at 13,435ft (4,095m) and this is made even more impressive by the fact that there aren’t any other peaks of comparable size in the area. A short two-hour van ride was all that was needed to reach the park from KK.

Well maintained boardwalks all around park headquarters.

Climbing the mountain is why many tourists visit Borneo but Amy and I were quickly turned-off to that idea because of the cost and because neither of us really fancied a two or three day slog up the mountain. After paying for permits, guides and

accommodations we were looking at around US$300 per person for the climb. Instead, we stuck to the trails around the base of the mountain which still gave us a nice taste of the local wildlife.

Kinabalu Mountain Lodge – our digs for two nights

For sleeping arrangements, we stayed at the Kinabalu Mountain which is about 2km from the park entrance. Inside the park there are a whole range of accommodations that were just above our price range. Rather recently a hospitality company secured an exclusive contract covering all the in-park housing and dining options and this seems to have driven prices up drastically. Even the cheaper restaurant in the park was charging RM50 (about $17) for a barely passable lunch buffet! No thanks.

Despite the hordes of climbers buzzing around park HQ all day, it was surprisingly easy to get away from everyone by hiking some of the lesser-known trails in the immediate vicinity. We had read that there was a very informative guided tour led on some of these trails. Honestly though, we were quite disappointed. The walk was very brief (40 minutes) and the tour group was quite large. Hiking on our own was a much better.

In addition to hiking around the park, I found some great bird watching right at our lodge. The lodge has a nice big front porch that overlooks the valley and all sorts of birds pass through at various times of day. I didn’t do so well with identifying them but I did manage to capture photos of a few.

One hungry ashy drongo baby

The evenings at the lodge were also quite entertaining. As soon as the sun goes down all sorts of insects wake up and start their day. I saw dozens of different types of moths as well as a few different giant beetles. I have never seen such huge insects before!

The green bug on the right is what you or I would consider to be “normal size”

Mount Kinabalu

Well maintained boardwalks all around park headquarters.

Kinabalu Mountain Lodge – our digs for two nights

View from the Kinabalu Mountain Lodge

They have some big bugs in these parts!

A big walking stick hanging out at the visitor center. Close to a foot long.

The green bug on the right is what you or I would consider to be “normal size”

Vines the circumference of a volleyball

One has to be careful of these while hiking. Some locals make bat traps out of these things!

Kota Kinabalu is the capital of Sabah, which is one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. Amy and I have both been to peninsular Malaysia on prior trips and we were eager to dive back in to some of the local cuisine. The food in Malaysia in an interesting mix of Chinese, Indian and Malay creations. KK has a lively night market along the waterfront where a few dozen vendors setup restaurants under tents. Most of these are serving up freshly caught seafood. We indulged in the night market at least three times during our stay.

The waterfront at Kota Kinabalu

One of the oddities of Malaysian cuisine is the ABC or Ais Kacang that you can get from just about any drink vendor. It’s somewhere between a drink and snack and consists of shaved ice, corn kernels, sweet beans and grass jelly all dowsed with a sugary pink syrup and condensed milk. It sounds strange and they certainly look weird but they make for a refreshing snack in the hot weather. Amy discovered a local variant that includes avocado that she quickly took a liking to.

Avocado Ais Kachang (more popularly known as Avacado ABC)

Just off the coast from KK is Tunku Abdul Rahman park which is comprised of a handful of jungle-covered islands. The regular ferry service to these islands makes them a popular day-trip for locals and tourists alike. We went to Pulau Sapi (Pulau means “island” in Malay and many of the other languages in this area) for an afternoon of snorkeling.

The island’s popularity was evident when we arrived. In contrast to the Cooks where we commonly had a couple hundred yards of beach to ourselves, here on Sapi we had about a hundred yards of beach to share with maybe 500 other people! As afternoon wore on it quieted down as people returned to town.

Amy went snorkeling and was reminded of how warm water is in this part of the world – “like bath water” as she puts it. There was a nice variety of fish but seeing them was hard because of the poor visibility. I entertained myself with some reading and a short hike across the island. I was hoping to see some birds but in the end all I spotted was a monitor lizard looking for food scraps behind the island restaurants.